I do not even know how or where to begin.
This has been the most surreal day. Could this really be happening!?
What we saw and experienced today is beyond words. And the tremors continue. When we were leaving the orphanage this afternoon a fairly strong tremor shook. The kids are so high strung.
Everyone, I mean everyone is in the streets. They have been told not to go into their homes. Nothing is stable. So much is not only not left standing, but not recognizable.
People are still trapped in rubble. The dead literally line the streets.
The Delmas School is no more (picutred). One young boy (not in the program or student at the school) was pulled out this afternoon. We took him to his home to lie out in the road with everyone else. Hospitals are either not open or barely functioning – there are just too many injured to be able to take care of. I cleaned the boy up and had medicine to put on the wounds and pain medicine, but I am sure he has internal injuries and broken bones, probably a concussion.
People would come up to the vehicle and beg for us to help them – they were injured. One woman was just crying, begging, pleading for us to help her child who was about to die. Jean Baptiste told me we just couldn’t do anything – there are no hospitals, no doctors. People are just lying injured all around. They are either already dead and waiting for someone to come along and recognize them – but when they are recognized , the families can do nothing – the morgues are full and closed. They are telling people to just bury the dead wherever they can.
The kids at the orphanage are okay – Flaby was almost crushed by a falling wall, but God spared her. Her fingers and leg were cut by the razor wire, but not too badly.
Several people died at the Delmas School (not HFHC students)– the final count is unknown. They were still trying to get people out when we left around 3 PM.
At the Cite Soleil School – a wall fell, the blocks for all the homes that were being rebuilt from the hurricanes in 2008 were destroyed, as were the homes that had just been rebuilt.
I hope everyone understands that individual requests about their kids will be difficult to come by and with so many wanting to communicate it will take time to get to all the requests. As I have specific info I will pass it along.
Right now, the best thing people in the States can do is to collect donations and pray. I do not advise people to come yet – we are not sure what kind of supplies can be secured here, if fuel will be available, etc. Long lines at the gas stations today. Hotels are not safe to stay in, etc. Don’t know about the water situation yet. No stores were open, no merchants selling on the streets. No banks open. Many banks destroyed and looted. Looting is of course rampant.
Please keep praying – help us too in praying as to how we can best help the people here and how we can assist others in their efforts.
Tim & I are fine.
God bless you all!
Debbie
